Wall constructions



T- K. OLSEN May 16, 1967 WALL CONSTRUCTIONS 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Original Filed June 14 1961 INVENTOR Torgny Kjelstrup 0lsen ym-W 44/ M T QP i w Original Filed June 14,

4 Sheets-She'et 2 Maw #44 mm m R a m V D. mm S e 1|! K V. n g r O T ATTORNEY T. K. OLSEN May 16, 196 7 WALL CONSTRUCTIO'NJS 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 Original Filed June 14 1961 INVENTOR Torgny Kjelstrup Olsen Br/'w/ M A T TORNEV y 1957 T. KOLSEN WALL CONSTRUCTIONS .4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Original Filed June 14, 1961 INVENTOR zTorgny Kje istrup Olsen .ATTORNEV United States Patent 3,319,388 WALL CONSTRUCTIONS Torgny Kjelstrup Olsen, Salgskontor, Bergen, Norway Continuation of application Ser. No. 117,158, June 14, 1961. This application May 13, 1964, Ser. No. 370,754 1 Claim. (Cl. 52-235) The present application is a continuation of my copending application, Ser. No. 117,158, filed June 14, 1961, now abandoned.

This invention relates to the outer walling of larger buildings, and particularly to thin wall structures of the kind referred to in the art as curtain walling, such curtain wallings comprising members made by extrusion of aluminum, together with other building materials.

In Walls of the stated kind, great problems have to be overcome to prevent moisture from penetrating into the interior of the walls or even entirely through same and into the building proper. The reason therefor is that the metal parts of the wall will expand and contract more than other building elements incorporated in a wall; as a consequence, extraordinarily great problems must be solved when tight joints are desired. Another important reason for problems being present is the wind pressure towards the joints, whereby water may be pressed by said wind pressure through the joints and most often entirely into and through the wall.

The main object of the present invention is to find a solution of the problem outlined above, whereby moisture penetrating into the wall as a result of wind pressure at the joints is prevented from damaging the Wall.

Another object of the present invention is to collect moisture thus penetrated into the wall and convey same away.

With these and further objects in view, according to the present invention, it has been considered that the problem of the combination of wind and rain acting togther to press moisture through the joints cannot be solved by attempting to provide entirely liquid tight joints in the wall. Even when tight joints initially have been obtained, aging of sealing materials, resiliency of materials under the influence of wind pressure, heat expansion and contraction, etc., will cause the seal to break, whereby damage may start.

With this consideration in view, the invention comprises the step of deliberately leaving certain joints unsealed in order to catch up the wind pressure by the expansion of the air streaming through such unsealed joints. Herein, a significant feature is that such openings provided by unsealed joints lead into a hollow space having substantial dimensions in relation to the opening.

Consequently, the invention consists in certain novel and unique combinations and modifications of parts in a wall construction.

Further objects, advantages and features of the present invention will become apparent in the course of the following description, in which reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification and which:

FIG. 1 is a vertical section through a lower portion of a wall according to the invention.

FIG. 2 is a vertical section through another portion of the wall according to FIG. 1, said other portion being located above the portion according to FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a horizontal sectional view of the wall according to FIG. 1 as taken on the line IIIIII of said figure, a fixedly arranged window being shown in this sectional view.

FIG. 4 is a horizontal sectional View as taken on the line IVIV of FIG. 1, a window openable for ventilating purposes being shown in this sectional view.

3,319,388 Patented May 16, 1967 In the embodiment shown in the drawings, a portion of a wall is shown at a window arrangement comprising a fixedly arranged window 10 and a ventilating window 11. The latter is hinged on a horizontal hinge axis 12 at its upper edge. Above and beneath the windows 10, 11, panels 13 are arranged at the outer side of the wall, said panels being in the present embodiment of colored and hardened glass, the Wall being of the kind referred to in the art as glazed curtain walling. Immediately inside of said panels a hollow space 14 is arranged, said hollow space being defined in the outward direction by Said panel 13 and in the inward direction with respect to the wall by a screening plate member 15 of asbestos reinforced concrete. Mineral wool mats 16 are arranged as insulation; if desired, the space receiving the insulation may also be used for receiving pipes 17 for electric conduits etc. The wall is terminated towards the room inside by a gypsum plate 18 which on the side facing towards the insulation may be provided with a vapor locking layer 19 and towards the room with a surfacing layer 20, for instance wallpaper.

As well known in. the art, the walls of glazed curtain Walling are suspended by bars of aluminum made by extrusion. In order to prevent heat transfer through the wall each bar comprises an outer bar member and an inner bar member separated by suitable insulating means, such as sealing strips of artificial rubber or the like, such strips being also manufactured to the desired cross sectional shape by extrusion.

Thus, an outer crossbar Z1 and an inner crossbar 22 are arranged at the lower edge of the window. At its upper edge, an outer crossbar 23 and an inner crossbar 25 are arranged, said upper inner crossbar 25 being identical to the lower inner crossbar 22. At the lower end, a fixed frame 26 surrounds the glass pane of the window. The same frame 26 is found at the transom bar separating the fixed window and the hinged window, said transom bar being also formed by an outer crossbar 27 and an inner crossbar 28.

The frame of the upper ventilating window comprises a substantially T-shaped outer bar member 29 and an inner bar member 30. Further, inner frame bar members 31 are provided, said inner frame bars corresponding to the frame 26 of the lower fixed window.

Received within a recess in upper bar member 30 of the window is a rubber sealing strip 32 having substantially cylindrical cross section, while a corresponding recess in the lower bar member 30 receives a sliding strip 33 having a protruding nose portion 34 sliding towards the transom bars 27, 28 for securing good tightening effect when the window is closed.

As shown in FIGURE 2, the outer bar member 23 forms the lower termination of the panel 13 of the outer wall surface while the corresponding inner bar member 25 forms the lower termination of the gypsum plate 18. At its upper end the panel 13 and the gypsum plate 18' are terminated by a corresponding pair of bar members 35, 36 located adjacent to a supporting member 37 at a floor. Arranged on the upper side of the supporting member 37 vertically spaced from the bar members 35, 36 is a further pair of bar members 38, 39 forming termination of a further panel 13 and a further gypsum plate 18 arranged just above the floor. The inner bar members 36 and 39 are secured to the supporting member 37 by a number of bolts 40, only one such bolt being shown in the drawings.

While now referring to FIG. 3, it will appear therefrom that the window frame of the lower window comprises an outer bar member 41 and an inner bar member 42. A frame bar 43 corresponding substantially to the frame bar 26 surrounds the glass pane. At the inner edge the inner bar member is terminated by auxiliary bar members 44, 45 forming inner edge termination and also a support of the gypsum plate 18. The bar members 41, 42 continue upwards at the upper ventilating window (see FIG. 4), where they cooperate with an auxiliary frame member 46 towards which the corresponding sliding strip 33 and associated nose portion 34 engage.

Arranged at the side of a window is a covering strip 48 for obtaining a certain ornamental eflect and also for cOVering a column 49 and a partition wall 50. A hollow space 14 is located behind the covering strip 48.

The main feature of the invention appears best from FIG. 2. By arrows 51 a passage is indicated at the lower end of the panel 13, said passage extending from the outer atmosphere and to a space 14 behind the panel 13, while arrows 52 point to passages at the upper end of the panel 13 from the space 14 to the outer atmosphere. Corresponding passages indicated by arrows 53 between the outer atmosphere and the space 14 are present at the vertical side edges of the strip 13, as shown in FIG. 4.

Thus, the space 14 serves as a relieving space for relieving the wind pressure acting towards the panel 13 and strip 48, whereby wind and moisture are allowed to penetrate through said narrow passages into space 14. Then, the moisture will mostly be deposited on the rear face of the panel 13 to flow downwards along said rear face to be discharged outwardly through the lower passage 51, whereby the latter will serve as a discharge channel of moisture.

As will appear further from FIG. 2 the panel 13 is at its lower end suspended from a member 55 via a supporting member 56 having an S-shaped cross section, one hook portion 57 of saidsupporting member supporting the panel 13 while the opposite hook portion 58, which faces in an opposite direction, is suspended by the mem ber 55. The panel is suspended in such manner that its lower edge is situated beneath the upper edge of the member 55, a certain spacing being maintained between the rear face of the panel and the member 55. The supporting members 56 are arranged at intervals with desired spacings to allow upwardly directed passages 51 to extend between adjacent supporting members.

At its upper end the panel 13 is inserted into a channel shaped part 59 having downwardly directed channel opening, said part 59 being an integral portion of the bar member 35, By means of spacing members 611 passages 52 are formed between the panel 13 and the legs 61, 62 of the part 59. Openings 63, 64 extend through the legs 61, 62 respectively, the opening of one leg being oifset in relation to the openings of the other leg. An outer part 65 protrudes beneath the opening 63 to shield same against the rain.

By vertical displacement of the panel 13 into the channel opening of the part 59, said panel may be lifted out of its suspension by the hook portion 57 of the supporting member 56, or the hook portion 58 may be lifted away from being suspended by the part 55. Hereby, panels 13 may be removed and sustituted in an easy way. However, the panel 13 is normally kept in position by an aux1l1ary bar member 66 removably mounted on the bar member 41 and gripping the panel 13 together with a part 67 of the bar member 41, as shown in FIG. 4.

Further to enable ventilation the covering strip 48 FIGS. 3 and 4) is arranged to have a number of depressions 68 (as indicated by dotted lines), said depressions being at their top connected to slots opening into the space 14 inside of the covering strip.

The space between the outer bar members 35 and 38 (FIG. 2) is also ventilated by means of a passage indicated by the arrow 69.

What I claim is:

In a wall construction, in combination, a plurality of vertical bar means, a plurality of horizontal bar :means, each of said vertical and horizontal bar means comprising an inner bar member and an outer bar member separated by insulating glands, connection means for said inner and outer bar members, means for connecting said vertical and horizontal bar means together to form a framework having rectangular openings, means for attaching said framework to a substructure, glass Windows received within certain ones of said rectangular openings and panels received within certain other ones of said rectangular openings, upper and lower sup-porting means associated with vertically adjacent horizonal bars between which each panel is suspended and defining air openings with the upper and lower ends of the panels, respectively, said lower supporting means each comprising an upstanding flange portion on each horizontal bar and auxiliary supporting members which are adapted to engage both the upstanding flange and the bottom end of an associated panel so that the rear face of the panel is horizontally spaced from the upstanding flange portion, said auxiliary supporting members being spaced apart whereby said lower air openings are defined by the rear face of the panel and the upstanding flange intermediate the spaced auxiliary supporting members, said auxiliary supporting members each being substantially S-shaped in cross-section with the upper hook portion thereof engaging the upper edge of the upstanding flange and the lower hook portion thereof engaging the bottom end of the panel, the air openings between the panel and the upstanding flange corresponding in size to the thickness of the auxiliary supporting member intermediate the upper and lower hook portions, said upper and lower supporting means being adapted to permit slidable displacement of a panel out of engagement therewith, screening plate means positioned inwardly of each said panel substantially at the location of the connecting means for said inner and outer bar members, each panel and screening means defining a wind pressure-relieving s ace therebetween communicating with said air openings permitting the passage of air directly from outside the framework to the wind pressurerelieving space behind each panel, inner plate means being supported by said inner bar members in said other ones of said rectangular openings inwardly of said screening plate means and forming together with the inside of said glass windows inner faces of said wall construction, said inner plate means and said screening plate means defining together a second hollow space within which insulating material is received, said air openings being located at positions shielded against direct exposure to the weather and having small dimensions in relation to the horizontal cross-sectional dimensions of said pressure relieving space.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,511,083 6/1950 Small 52-547 2,572,764 10/1051 Rogers et al. 52-202 2,724,465 11/1955 Krauss et al 52-302 2,855,078 10/1958 Krauss et al. 52-303 2,914,145 11/1959 Benson 52303 X 2,949,981 8/ 1960 Ferrell 52235 2,960,195 11/1960 Toth 52-235 2,976,970 3/1961 Toney 52.-235 3,045,784 7/1962 Hasekamp 52489 3,093,217 6/1963 Doede 52235 X HARRISON R. MOSELEY, Primary Examiner.

0 REINALDO P. MACHADO, Examiner.

KENNETH DOW NEY, Assistant Examiner, 

